Choose rejects Amber Heard’s request to put aside Johnny Depp win – Nationwide

A Virginia choose on Wednesday rejected an effort by actor Amber Heard to put aside the US$10-million judgement awarded towards her in favour of her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.

Depp received a defamation swimsuit towards Heard final month in a high-profile civil trial. Heard received a smaller, $2-million judgement on a counterclaim she filed towards Depp.

Earlier this month, Heard filed a movement looking for to have Depp’s verdict put aside, or have a mistrial declared. Her attorneys cited a number of elements, together with an obvious case of mistaken id with one of many jurors.

In a written order, Choose Penney Azcarate rejected all of Heard’s claims and stated the juror situation particularly was irrelevant and that Heard can’t present she was prejudiced.

“The juror was vetted, sat for your entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict. The one proof earlier than this Court docket is that this juror and all jurors adopted their oaths, the Court docket’s directions, and orders. This Court docket is sure by the competent resolution of the jury,” Azcarate wrote.

Depp sued for $50-million in Fairfax County after Heard wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Publish about home violence during which she referred to herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” The article by no means talked about Depp by title, however his attorneys stated a number of passages within the article defamed him by implication by referring to extremely publicized abuse allegations she made in 2016 as she filed for divorce.

Heard then filed a $100-million counterclaim, additionally for defamation. By the point the case went to trial, her counterclaim had been whittled down to some statements made by certainly one of Depp’s attorneys, who referred to as Heard’s abuse allegations a hoax.

The jury awarded $15-million to Depp and $2-million to Heard on her counterclaim. The $15-million judgement was lowered to $10.35-million as a result of Virginia regulation caps punitive damages at $350,000.

The choose didn’t spell out rationale for rejecting Heard’s different claims in Wednesday’s order.

Amongst different issues, Heard argued that the $10-million verdict is unsupported by the info, and appears to display that jurors didn’t give attention to the fallout from the 2018 op-ed piece — as they have been speculated to do — and as a substitute simply appeared broadly on the harm Depp’s repute suffered on account of the alleged abuse.

Heard’s attorneys additionally argued that the verdicts for Depp on one hand and Heard on the opposite are essentially nonsensical.

“The jury’s dueling verdicts are inconsistent and irreconcilable,” her attorneys, Elaine Bredehoft and Benjamin Rottenborn, wrote.

Heard’s attorneys additionally challenged the decision on the idea that one of many seven jurors who determined the case was by no means summoned for jury obligation. In accordance with court docket papers, a 77-year-old county resident obtained a jury summons. However the man’s son, who has the identical title and lives on the identical deal with, responded to the summons and served in his stead.

Heard’s attorneys argued that Virginia regulation is strict about juror identities, and the case of mistaken id is grounds for a mistrial. They offered no proof that the 52-year-old son, recognized in court docket papers solely as Juror #15, purposefully or insidiously sought to switch his father, however they argue that risk shouldn’t be discounted.

“The Court docket can’t assume, as Mr. Depp asks it to, that Juror 15’s apparently improper service was an harmless mistake. It may have been an intentional try to serve on the jury of a high-profile case,” Heard’s attorneys wrote.

Heard nonetheless has the flexibility to enchantment the decision to the Virginia Court docket of Appeals. The problems offered to the appellate court docket may effectively be totally different from the problems Azcarate rejected Wednesday.

In a separate order, the choose ordered that dozens of court docket paperwork be unsealed, together with motions looking for to compel impartial medical examinations of each Depp and Heard. A handful of paperwork will stay sealed, largely as a result of they include private contact data or private medical data.

“On this matter, each litigants sued each other, thereby opening themselves as much as the general public discussion board of a jury trial. Court docket information are public data,” Azcarate wrote.

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